A child has just been awarded £4,000 in compensation for having been placed, feet first, in a litter bin by a policeman. Maybe it was the wrong sort of bin, one of those that takes only cardboard and unsold copies of The Independent, rather than badly behaved inner-city yoof. Maybe we need yet another set of bins for our front gardens — a red one for lippy, troublesome teenagers and a guaranteed weekly collection by the council for melting down and recycling. Anyway, the copper was ticked off and we — through the Metropolitan police — forked out. The boy’s name was Anop Singh, then aged 15, and he had been pelting people with conkers in Stoke Newington High Street, north London.

 

A policeman approached him and a free and frank exchange of views took place, culminating in the rozzer hoisting Anop off his feet and threatening to put him in the litter bin. “Go on then,” goaded Anop, unwisely. Shouldn’t have said that, kid, should you? What I liked best about the story was Anop’s response upon pocketing the compensation two years after the incident. “The money would never make up for the humiliation and distress I suffered,” he said, apparently keeping a straight face.

 

Reading that, you half wish the copper had dispensed with the bin and just thrown him headfirst into one of those giant metal-crushing machines that you see on the dilapidated outskirts of our cities, or into one of those enormous furnaces for toxic medical waste that may or may not lead to cancer clusters. However, I suppose it’s not Anop’s fault, that terrible reflexive whining about distress and bullying. It’s gibberish he has learnt, by rote, from adults — about the only thing our youngsters do learn by rote these days. Anop may be pig ignorant in most regards, but he sure knows his rights.

 

Some of you liberals may think well, actually, I don’t think policemen should put children in litter bins. A fair point. The alternative for this particular policeman was to arrest the youngster, take witness statements, haul Anop down to the nick, fill in 672 separate forms, contact the vast and ineffectual local social services department and start preparing a case for the juvenile courts. Which would, of course, set the little wretch free without even the vaguest of admonishments and would end up costing the taxpayer rather more than £4,000.

 

Anop’s dad was right behind his son in his claim for official redress. We need yet another kind of bin for the likes of Anop’s dad.

 

My guess is that there are about 17 people in Britain — and that’s counting Anop and his dad — who think that the £4,000 payout is justified. The overwhelming majority know that our errant youth are treated with far too much indulgence and that people stupid enough to confront antisocial behaviour in the street get short shrift from the police and often end up being charged themselves. Even when they are the police.

 

The case of Anop Singh has become almost a cliché: wearily, we know the balance is wrong. Just as we know that the scales of justice are tilted unfairly in favour of the asylum seeker who commits a crime and against his or her British-born victim. Yet there is no political imperative to redress these obvious anomalies; such a thing would be seen as illiberal.

 

Later we wonder how come our young people seem intent on shooting one another, as if there were no link between our official indulgence and the horrible spiralling of violence.

 

Source: Sunday Times

 

Just as we know that the scales of justice are tilted unfairly in favour of the asylum seeker who commits a crime and against his or her British-born victim. Yet there is no political imperative to redress these obvious anomalies; such a thing would be seen as illiberal.

 

Source: Sunday Times

 

I was agreeing with this article up until the point when this load of irrelevant, racist sh!te came into it..... <_< Why focus only on the crimes committed by Asylum seekers..? We all know that victims of crime in general are being fukked up by the system regardless of the ethnic origins of the perpetrators, and besides, we're talking about unruly youth here, what the hell does that have to do with Asylum Seekers....? Typical of the right wing press really, they'd probably find some way to blame Arsenal losing the cup on asylum seekers.. Talk about shooting yourself through the foot and totally destroying your own argument.....

 

I do totally agree however, that the youth of this country are being totally overindulged with a lot of middle class, nannying, liberal nonsense. As far as I'm concerned, the worst things that happened were the ending of Corporal Punishement in schools and the ban on smacking... Bring back the cane. Bring back the old clip round the earhole.

 

I seem to remember that there were photos published of this particular incident, the kid appeared to be laughing as the copper was sticking him in the bin, so much for "emotional stress"....

Every time an adult lays a finger on a child, the child knows they can call social services and get the adult into trouble easily. Some people just don't seem to be able to differentiate between abuse and discipline. It wouldn't have worked with me. If I'd threatened to call social services, my mum would've dialed the number and handed me the phone. No messing about.

Although the case is, of course, ridiculous, the nastiness of the article rather destroys the journalist's point

 

"Reading that, you half wish the copper had dispensed with the bin and just thrown him headfirst into one of those giant metal-crushing machines that you see on the dilapidated outskirts of our cities, or into one of those enormous furnaces for toxic medical waste that may or may not lead to cancer clusters."

 

So witty, so charming.

 

"Just as we know that the scales of justice are tilted unfairly in favour of the asylum seeker who commits a crime and against his or her British-born victim."

 

Rabble-rousing xenophobic, racist c**p

 

"Later we wonder how come our young people seem intent on shooting one another"

 

What, all of them? Stupid generalisation.

 

This bigot sound like Richard Littlejohn or someone of that ilk. Pity really because the basic point is sound. I just find myself unwilling to ally myself with this obnoxious guff. If I were his child, throwing conkers at people would be the least of my antisocial problems!

Edited September 14, 200717 yr by 45cat